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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 
BUREAU OF FISHERIES 

HUGH M. SMITH, Commissioner 



THE FISHERIES BIOLOGICAL STATION 
AT FAIRPORT, IOWA 



By R. E. COKER 

Assistant in Charge of Scientific Inquiry 
U. S. Bureau of Fisheries 



Appendix I to the Report of the u. s. commissioner 
OF Fisheries for 1920 




^^isg> 
Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 895 



PRICE, 5 CENTS 
L only by the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office 
Washington, D. C. 



washington 
government printing office 

1921 



CONTENTS. 



History and functions 3 

Personnel and equipment 4 

Service rendered 5 

Wliat is done for mussel industries 5 

What is done for fish, culture 9 

Other services to fisheries 11 



UIBRAftY Of e©N9r«8§ 
MlAY26t921 



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F.— Doc. 895, 



Plate I. 




THE FISHERIES BIOLOGICAL STATION AT FAIRPORT, IOWA, 



By R. E. CoKER, Assistant in Charge of Scientific Inquiry, 
JJ. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 



HISTORY AND FUNCTIONS. 

The Fairport station was established by act of Congress in 1908. 
Its construction was begun in 1909, and with temporary equipment 
it began operations in June, 1910. The old laboratory, a frame 
structure of approximately the same dimensions as the present 
fireproof building, was constructed in 1912 and 1913. At the formal 
dedication of the building on August 4, 1914, unusual public interest 
was manifested by the attendance of 5,000 persons and by the con- 
gratulatory addresses delivered hj men of prominence in public life 
and by scientific men of established repute. This building was 
unfortunately destroyed by fire on December 20, 1917. _ The office 
furniture and files and such scientific records as were retained in the 
office in original or duplicate form were saved; but records embodying 
results of tedious investigations were lost, together with the scientific 
equipment. A chief loss was the library, which, though not large, 
included a rare collection of separate papers and monographs, particu- 
larly such as related to fresh-water mussels of America and Europe. 

Fortunately, the station comprised a great deal more than the 
laboratory building. The ponds and water system remained intact. 
The personnel of the station adapted itself readilj^ to the changed 
conditions, and the important scientific and administrative work of 
the station was promptly resumed in the cramped quarters afforded 
by the old "temporary laboratory," a small one-story building just 
below the railroad, which had served a similar purpose in the first 
years of the station's history. For nearly three years valuable 
scientific work was carried on in these poor quarters, both by the 
permanent scientific staff and by a limited number of specialists in 
temporary association with the Bureau — men and women to whom 
personal convenience or comfort was secondary to the achievement 
of the objects to which the station was dedicated. 

An appropriation of $80,000 was promptly made by Congress for 
the erection of a new and firej)roof building. This, supplemented by 
two small additional appropriations, made it possible to build and 
partially to equip the present admirable building of brick, stone, and 
concrete. Experience gained during the occupancy of the old 
building, the resourcefulness and skill of the architect,^ and the good 
spirit manifested by the constructing company, all combined to make 
the new building superior in available space, convenience, and 
serviceability, and an exceptional value in proportion to cost. 

1 Prof. James M. Wliite, professor of architecture and supervising architect of the University of Illinois. 
39343°— 21 3 



4 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

After unavoidable delays arising from the conditions of national 
emergency, the new laboratory was completed and occupied in 
August, 1920. Again there was a demand upon the Bureau for the 
observance of exercises of dedication, and these were set for October 
7, in connection with a Conference Regarding the Application of 
Science to the Utilization and Preservation of the Resources of our 
Interior Waters (October 7 and 8) . The occasion was made impres- 
sive, helpful, and inspiring through the whole-hearted cooperation of 
representatives of the Government, business men, and scientists from 
the leading American universities. Recognition of the national 
significance of this biological station for investigation of problems of 
fresh waters was attested by the presence of delegates from 22 uni- 
versities and colleges and from two independent scientific organiza- 
tions, representing 14 States, from California on the west to Massa- 
chusetts on the east, from Oklahoma and Florida on the south to 
Wisconsin and Michigan on the north. 

The station serves as a base of operations for a large part of the 
scientific work of the Bureau of Fisheries in the Mississippi Basin. 
A primary activity is the propagation of pearly fresh-water mussels ; 
but not less significant are its functions in experimental fish culture, 
in investigations of various fresh-water fishery problems, and in 
promoting both a fuller utilization of aquatic products and a broader 
interest in the protection of aquatic resources, in order that the 
future, as well as the present, may be properly served. 

Through field parties the activities of the station have been ex- 
tended into most of the States of the Mississippi Basin, and the results 
of work done go much further than the localities in which operations 
are conducted. The benefits of service to the mussel industries are 
felt not only where mussel fishing, or clamming, is practiced, but 
wherever mussels are manufactured into the fmished products of 
commerce — in New York and Massachusetts, as well as in Wisconsin 
and Iowa; they are experienced, too, though unconsciously, by aE 
who are consumers or utilizers of buttons. The demonstration at 
Fairport of the feasibility of propagating the channel catfish in ponds 
can be made useful for the increase of food supply in other parts of the 
United States, The propagation and distribution of some hundreds 
of millions of buffalofish fry in public waters each year is the direct 
result of experiments origmally conducted at the Fairport station. 
The broader utilization of fishes formerly considered ''coarse" or 
useless is in part the result of practical experiments in smoking fish^ 
conducted during several years at this station. The varied services 
of the station will be described and illustrated more fully in later 
pages. 

PERSONNEL AND EQUIPMENT. 

Every station of the Bureau is regarded as an agency through which 
as complete a pubhc service is to be rendered as conditions allow, but 
it is evident that the Fairport station combines in a somewhat unique 
way the functions of a fisheries biological station and a fish-cultural 
experiment station. This it does because of the provisions of person- 
nel and equipment authorized by the Congress and because of the 
conditions of its location and origin. 

There is attached^ to the station a small permanent staff of scien- 
tists, fish-culturists, and other employees necessary for continuous 



BIOLOGICAL STATIOIJT, FAIRPORT, IOWA. 5 

operation and uninterrupted experimental work. During some parts 
of the year, as may be desirable and practicable, the personnel 
responsible to this laboratory is much enlarged. The temporary 
associates or employees, comprising investigators skilled in special 
lines, scientific assistants, practical fishermen, or others, make it 
possible not onljr to increase the effectiveness of the station, but to 
broaden the territory of its operations. 

About 60 acres of land, extending from the banks of the Mississippi, 
on a two-fifths of a mile front, to the brOw of a hill a quarter of a 
mile back, afford ample space for the distribution of ponds and the 
suitable location of buildmgs. The slope of the ground is such as 
to assure proper drainage and to make it feasible to have a gravity 
flow of water from the storage reservoirs, located on or beneath the 
ground at suitable elevations, to the ponds and buildings. 

There are in all 36 ponds, 14 of which are small and made of con- 
crete, and 22 of which are dug out of the earth, simulating the condi- 
tions of natural ponds and varying in area from one- tenth of an acre 
to an acre or more. There are two water systems, the natural river 
water, pumped into a large storage reservoir and flowing thence to 
the several ponds, and filtered river water which is stored in low and 
high pressure cisterns and used for domestic and laboratory purposes. 
There is also a complete underground sewage and drainage system, 
which conveys the waste water and sewage into the river well below 
the source of supply. 

The buildings comprise a main laboratory building, a small tank 
house, a boiler and pump house, a boat and seine shed, a storehouse 
and carpenter shop, a small shell-testing shop, and other necessary 
living houses and outbuildings. In some of these will be found 
pumping machinery for the two water-supply systems, machinery 
for cuttmg and finishing buttons in testing work, and such shop and 
field tools as are necessary to make the station as nearly self-contained 
as practicable. 

The principal building, of concrete, stone, and brick, with ground 
dimensions of approximately 100 by 55 feet, has a fully miished 
basement besides two full stories and a finished third story over the 
center and larger portion of the building. The present laboratory 
accommodations for 16 investigators can oe extended by conversion 
of other rooms into laboratories. A well-lighted library, chemical 
laboratory, photographic room, museum, tank, and aquarium rooms 
are features of the building essential to the efficient accomplishment 
of biological and chemical investigations of fishery problenis. To 
afford necessary accommodations for temporary investigators at 
certain seasons, there are provided also a kitchen, a dining room, 
and a number of bed chambers which may be converted into labora- 
tories as required. The building is lighted by electricity. 

SERVICE RENDERED. 

WHAT IS DONE FOR MUSSEL INDUSTRIES. 

The services of the Fairport station to the pearly mussel industries 
have consisted in the propagation of mussels, the survey of mussel 
resources, the investigation of mussel problems, and the promotion 
of the protection of mussels. 



U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 




Fig. 1. — The biological laboratory, ground floor plan: D, ice box. 




Fig. 2.— The biological laboratory, first floor plan: A, tank table; B, chemical hood; C, balance slab. 



BIOIjOGICAL station, FAIKPOKT, IOWA. 




HG. 3.— The biological laboratory, second floor plan: A, tank table; E, linen closet. 




Fig. 4.— The biological laboratory: E, linen closet. 



8 U. S. BUREAU OF TISHERIES. 

The survey of resources has resulted in opening new fields, and it 
helps also to furnish the necessary basis of information for estimate 
of the perpetuity of the resources, for the adoption of intelligent 

?rotective measures, and for guidance in the work of propagation, 
'he special investigations and experimental studies have led to im- 
provements in method of propagation and are pointing the way to 
further improvements. By investigations in the field and by con- 
tinued observation of the industries, the Bureau has arrived at a 
better understanding of the measures necessary for effective con- 
servation of mussels; and, by propaganda, correspondence, publica- 
tions, and personal conferences, it has been enabled to stimulate 
more general interest in the subject and to cooperate with State 
authorities and others in the framing of suitable protective measures. 

The enactment and enforcement of such measures must be left 
to the several States, but a commendable interest has been shown 
in some States, and a beginning has been made, notably in Wisconsin 
and Minnesota. 

Mussel propagation is carried on by field parties engaged at various 
places on important rivers. Fishes are seined from the rivers or 
from overflow waters, are infected with the glochidia (the larval 
forms of mussels) and then liberated again in the public waters. 

The methods of propagation are based upon a peculiar featm-e of 
the normal course of development of fresh-water mussels. The 
very young fresh-water mussels, with rare exception, when first 
liberated from the incubation pouches of the parent, must become 
parasitic upon fish in order to pass through the next stage of their 
existence. To this end, if the chance offers after liberation, the 
young mussels, or glochidia as they are called in this stage, attach 
themselves to the gills, fins, or scales of a fish. The mussels of 
economic importance attach themselves almost exclusively to the 
gills. In attaching, or biting on the fish, a very slight wound seems 
to be caused, which begins at once to heal over; but, in the process 
of mending, the glochidiinn is overgrown and thus inclosed within 
the tissues of the fish. The mussel is now actually an internal 
parasite, in which condition it remains for a period of two weeks, 
more or less. It is thus conveyed wherever the fish goes, until, 
when the proper stage of development is reached, it frees itself from 
the host and falls to the bottom; if, through favorable fortime, it 
finds suitable lodgment, it continues its growth to form an adult 
mussel. 

The glochidia are so small that the infection, if not excessive, has 
no apparent injurious effect upon the fish that serves as host. In- 
vestigations by the station have shown that mussels do not attach 
to fish indiscriminately, but that for each species of mussel there is 
a limited number of species of fish which may serve as hosts. 

The task of propagation is to bring together suitable fish and the 
glochidia of mussels. Careful studies of natural and artificial in- 
fections show that a moderate-sized fish may successfully carry in 
parasitism from 1,000 to 2,000 of the microscopic glochidia, but 
that under the chance operation of nature few of the glochidia find 
lodgment upon the proper fish or upon any fish. 

During the fiscal year 1920, in round numbers, 183 million glo- 
chidia were liberated in parasitic condition. A considerable pro- 
portion of these glochidia undoubtedly fall upon unfavorable groimd 



Plate II. 




PONDS FOR EXPERIMENT WORK. 



Earth-walled ponds of various sizes and forms present natural conditions such as may be repro- 
duced on the farm. Small concrete-lined ponds serve the needs of special experiments. Both 
fish and mussels s ' ' 




FIG. 2.— TROUGHS FOR REARING MUSSELS. 

In troughs supplied with naturally clarified water flowing from near the surface of one of the 
ponds, the best conditions have been found for rearing several species of fresh- water mussels. 
As is the fortune of experimental work, success has been variable, but a single trough may pro- 
duce in one season more than 2,000 young mussels one-fourth to one-half inch in length. 



U. S. B. F.— Doc. 895. 



Plate III. 



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FIG. 1.— PONDS FOR FISH-CULTURAL EXPERIMENT WORK. 

Part of the equipment used for fish-cultural experiment work. In these ponds we learn how 
to rear buffalolish and catfish, and how to make ponds more productive of black bass, bream, 
and other esteemed game fishes. Mussel culture, too, is practised in these ponds. 




SIMPLE FISHPOND. 



This pond, a quarter of an acre in extent, simulates the natural conditions of a farm pond 
receiving minimum attention. Being stocked with generally esteemed fishes, it is intended to 
answer the question: What will a small pond yield without special attention? 



BIOLOGICAL STATION, FAIEPORT, IOWA. 9 

or fail from other causes to reach maturity. However, it is the 
large number which can be infected on fish and liberated at small 
expense that justifies a confidence in the accomplishment of com- 
mensurate benefits. The average cost per 1,000 glochidia artifi- 
cially infected on fish in the fiscal year 1920 was less than 6 cents, 
inclusive of overhead expenses. 

Some of the streams in which this work has been carried on are 
the Mississippi Eiver, at various points, the Ohio and Cumberland 
Kivers, the Wabash River in Indiana, and the White and Black 
Rivers of Arkansas. 

In connection with the propagation of mussels, many fishes are 
rescued from land-locked ponds and restored to the rivers. In 
this way, during the fiscal year 1920, 36,442 adult and 871,553 
fingerling fish were preserved from probable death by suffocation 
with the drying up of the temporary ponds, and this benefit was 
accomplished practically without expense additional to that neces- 
sarily incurred for the propagation of mussels. ^ 

WHAT IS DONE FOR FISH CULTURE. 

The services of agricultural and experimental stations to the 
farmer are so well understood that large appropriations are annually 
made by the Federal Government and by every State in order that 
there may be conducted the various sorts of investigations and ex- 
periments that are necessary to assist the farmer in producing larger 
and better crops with the greatest degree of economy. It is like- 
wise important that studies and experiments be carried on to in- 
crease the productiveness of streams and lakes and ponds. The 
grower of fishes is even more dependent than the land farmer upon 
guidance from governmental experiments. A wheat grower or a 
cattle raiser has some chance to try out various methods and ascer- 
tain the effects by watching the growth of his crops or of his stock. 
The fish farmer, on the other hand, may try different methods, but 
he can not see how they work. Furthermore, nearly all of our 
water areas are under public and not private ownership and control, 
and only the public is justified in expenditures for experimental 
work. 

Nearly all that we know of fish culture in America has been learned 
in connection with practical fish-cultural stations, where, since the 
establishment of the United States Fish Commission 50 years ago, 
many experiments have been carried out. The accumulated experi- 
ence of keen and observant fish-culturists is of inestimable value; 
yet it should be pointed out that the function of a fish-cultural 
station is to produce as large as possible an output of fry or fingerling 
fish to be distributed in various waters where others must assume the 
responsibility for bringing the fish to maturity. It is not the pur- 
pose of such stations to work out by tedious experimentation and 
careful studies the conditions necessary to make individual ponds as 
productive as possible for market fish. As yet no other station of the 
Federal Government than Fairport has been designed to serve this 
function. 

1 During the first half of the fiscal year 1921, through the cooperation of the National Association of 
Button Manufacturers, more than 5 million fishes taken in the Bureau's rescue work alpng the Upper 
Misdssippi Eiver have been infected with mussels and liberated. 



10 TJ. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

A few years ago no catfish except the small bullheads had been 
successfully propagated, although attempts to breed them in ponds 
had repeatedly been made. Having at Fairport the facilities and the 
personnel for continuous fish-cultural experiments, the channel cat, 
or common spotted catfish, the most favored of the tribe, was chosen 
as one of the fishes for experiment. Success was not attained in the 
first two or three years, but finally the right thing was done, and the 
propagation of the fish was found to be practicable. The methods 
may be and should be improved, but the results obtained can now be 
made useful for the promotion of fish culture and increase of food 
supply. 

All attempts at artificial propagation of the buffalofish yielded 
most discouraging results until this station by properly conducted 
experiment demonstrated its entire feasibility and thus made a par- 
ticularly valuable contribution to fish culture. The buffalofish are 
large species of conunercial fish, in good esteem, formerly abundant in 
the principal rivers of the Mississippi Basin, but of late years dimin- 
ishing in numbers. The hatching of the eggs of buffalofish by arti- 
ficial means with the subsequent liberation of the fry or fingerling is 
now shown to be practicable, and it has been put into practice on a 
large scale through the fish-cultural stations oi the Bureau. There 
are in progress at Fairport further experiments to determine if this 
fish may be successfully grown in properly controlled ponds. 

Other experiments at this station relate to the growing of game 
fishes in ponds. Incidental to the experiment work, a considerable 
number of fish of several species are propagated each year and planted 
in the Mississippi River. 

The task of fish culture is only begun when the fry or fingerling 
fish are produced and placed in ponds. The success of the pond 
depends upon the rate of growth of the fish and the proportion of the 
original stock which survives. The poultry raiser does not overrate 
his accomplishment when several thousand young chickens are 
transferred from brooders to yards. His success or failure is meas- 
ured when the chickens are ready for market, by their number, 
weight, and quality. If fishes are to be grown successfully in ponds, 
it is necessary to know upon what they feed and how this food is 
maintained in the pond, and what other conditions are favorable or 
unfavorable to the survival and growth of the fish. 

Let us again find a partial analogy in the rearing of farm animals. 
Is the farmer concerned only with his cattle, or does he in the selec- 
tion, the preparation, and the conduct of his farm, give thought to 
the growing of pasture plants and hay grain foods ? Can he ignore 
the parasites which cause disease or weakness among his animals; 
Would he not be stupid to overlook the insects or plant rusts that may 
sweep his pastures or crop fields bare ? Evidently the stock farm is 
a good deal more than an abiding place for large and useful animals; 
it is a complex association of cattle, plants, insects, birds, worms, soil 
bacteria, and what else, not to mention such inanimate things as soil 
chemicals, water, and air. The fish pond or the fish stream is just as 
much a complex — ^more of one, it must be thought, because, though the 
air on the land farm is ever-present in imlimited quantities, the air in 
the water farm is limited and variable. Suffocation of the cow in the 
pasture is never feared, but partial or complete suffocation of fish is 
a frequent reality. Furthermore, the movements of fish are often 



BIOLOGICAL STATIO]!T, FAIRPOET, IOWA. 11 

governed by distribution of air or waste gases in the water, and the 
quantity of animal hfe in the pond is limited by the supply of dissolved 
gases. 

Since the air supply of fish, without which they can not live, varies 
both seasonably and irregularly, the investigators must study the 
conditions of occurrence and distribution of gases in ponds and 
streams that we may learn what is favorable and what is uiif avorable 
to the best conditions of gas content and thus to productivity of 
useful animals. 

Since the air and the chemicals of water and soil are brought to 
the fish through the intermediation of small plants, small floating 
animals, creeping insects, and other things, these must all be carefully 
considered in their relation to fish cultxu-e. The relations are com- 
plex and the investigators must concentrate attention in different 
studies upon particular animals or plants. Some of the investiga- 
tions so far pursued at Fairport relate to the food of the fishes at 
various stages of development, the kinds of plants that are most 
suitable and necessary in fish ponds, the relations of certain insect 
larvae as food or as enemies of fish, and the occurrence of parasites 
that weaken the growing fishes and cause them to die or become an 
easier prey to enemies. 

OTHER SERVICES TO FISHERIES. 

A good deal of valuable work which is not directly related to 
mussels or to fish culture is done at and from the Fairport station. 
A few typical forms of service may be cited. 

The construction of the dam across the Mississippi River, about 
100 miles below Fairport, at Keokuk, Iowa, gave opportunity for a 
comprehensive investigation of the effects of water-power develop- 
ments upon the fisheries of large rivers, and considerable information 
has been gained as the result of observations continued over a period 
of several years at Keokuk and at various points both above and 
below. 

Chemical studies pursued in the laboratory have been directed 
toward ascertaining the food qualities of some aquatic products and 
possible methods of improving them. 

Studies of the diseases of fishes, the causes and remedies, have been 
pursued. It has been learned that the slight injuries incidental to 
the handling of fish in warm weather, particularly in rescuing fishes 
from overflow waters, often lead to bacterial infections which cause 
serious mortahties. Means of prophylaxis are being devised which 
may be simple of apphcation and effective in materially increasing 
the effectiveness of rescue operations in warm weather. 

Somewhat apart from the ordinary lines of activity of the station, 
but corresponding to an evident need existing along the Mississippi 
River, there were conducted during a period of years some simple 
but immediately practical experiments in smoking the common 
fishes of the Mississippi River which had no particular value in the 
fresh state and which brought so little retm-n to the fishermen that 
they were often allowed to go to waste. Some of these were occa- 
sionally smoked, but in many cases the smoking was so carelessly 
or ignorantly done that the product was inferior in taste and in keeping 
quality. Others were thrown away or sold for nearly nothing. The 



12 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

result of the experiments at Fairport was to enable the Bureau in a 
period of food emergency to issue a printed circular describing in 
detail the construction of a simple portable smokehouse, the methods 
of operation for different fishes, and the qualities of taste imparted 
to the fish by several sorts of fuel. This was followed almost imme- 
diately by sending out demonstration parties along principal rivers 
and even along the seacoast, proving by actual test, both to fisher- 
men and to housekeepers, that "coarse" or "useless" fishes could 
be made palatable to the consumer and profitable to the fishermen. 
This was a simple and practical thing to do, but it required some 
years of experimental work, as opportunity offered, to try out various 
fishes by varied methods and to learn some things that were entirely 
unexpected. 

The Fairport station, then, as a special agency of the Bureau of 
Fisheries, adapts its services within reasonable limits to the varying 
needs arising within its sphere of action. It endeavors to bring about 
a broader and better understanding of our inland waters as national 
resources — that they may be viewed not only as channels of surface- 
water drainage, as avenues of transportation, or as convenient and 
economical sewers, but as fields for the continuous production of 
necessities of food and raiment. It has set before it the task of dis- 
covering by scientific studj and by practical experiment the con- 
ditions of preservation and mcrease of the useful life of inland waters. 

Its work should tend to disclose what degree of protection is neces- 
sary and what methods are feasible, what conditions of biological, 
chemical, and physical environment are favorable for increased pro- 
duction of fish and other aquatic animals, and what measures may 
be taken to improve the environments in ponds, lakes, and streams. 

The objective, let us say, is the prevention of the continued deple- 
tion of our aquatic resources, and the bringing of all interior waters 
to a condition of greatest fruitfulness. The way may be long and 
beset with obstacles, and success can be attained but gradually and 
by means of persistent effort and painstaking study. As we have 
indicated, some small milestones of^ progress have been passed, but 
it must be evident to all that the main task is for the future and that 
it is big enough and sufficiently complex and offers a degree of promise 
not only to justify the best efforts of the station, but to enlist the 
cooperation of all those having opportunity and interest to render 
public service through attention to the resources of interior waters. 



